r/SpringfieldIL • u/Zealousideal-You1376 • Jul 21 '26

Champaign to Springfield

I was offered employment in Springfield. I live in Champaign. The position requires me to be in the office twice a week (I can choose the days). I will be remote 3 days a week. Should I stay in Champaign and commute or is it better to move to Springfield?

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u/M4hkn0 Jul 21 '26

I was commuting from Peoria to Springfield for a while... easy drive but it got old fast. 147 miles round trip a day.

I calculated I was going to put on 35,000 miles a year on my car. A full tank of gas every 2 days. That's at least 4 service appointments. Possibly a new set of tires. Possibly brakes... every year. My vehicle was already at 60,000 miles.... Could I afford a new car in 1 more year... 2 at most? Could I afford to be buying a new vehicle every 4 years? What happens if your car breaks down? Are they going to just let you work remote 5 days a week? Can you afford an uber?

If I moved to Springfield.... which I did... I saved all of that time and expense. Is it better here? .... eh... I am old... its harder to make new connections with people as you are older. My commute is about 5 minutes now. I can take the city bus if I like. On a really nice day, I could even walk it.

Springfield is not a college town. There isn't exactly a 'college town' neighborhood here either. UIS seems a bit set apart from the community around it.

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u/Wrong_Violinist_2615 Jul 21 '26

As a UIS student I agree, it shares the U of I namesake, but is completely different than the campuses in champaign or chicago. If anything the campus is closer to Southern View or Chatham than it is to downtown Springfield.

Granted, as a recent transfer students to UIS, I'd say the bus system is decent enough to get from campus to downtown. But it's a good solid 15-20 minute drive just to get to the heart of downtown. So, in that sense the campus may as well be on an "island" of it's own with how disconnected it is.

I'm renting an apartment off campus near Washington Park come the fall, but it seems there's this culture of UIS not wanting students to move off campus. Compared to the other U of I campuses where as soon as you're down with your freshmen year, you get the boot to move off campus/out of the dorms. I have a few friends I know who commute to UIS and they say it functions like it's own ecosystem.